Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Fuel

Fuel Pizza
My wife undoubtedly believes that this blog should be "Pizza and Whiskey" since, not only do they go well together, but pizza is one of my favorite foods. I'm down from my youthful heights, when I would eat pizza 3 or 4 times a week for dinner, but I still regularly have a slice of  pizza for lunch. Unfortunately, there are more bad pizza joints in DC than corrupt politicians, and the good ones aren't that good. Washington Deli is arguably the best in the neighborhood, but it's not as cheesy as I like and the sauce is overly sweet (to some that may be a feature, not a bug). Pizza Pino is good and cheesy, but the quality is really inconsistent, and the other ingredients aren't all that great. So I was excited to see Fuel open a joint just a few blocks from where I'm working. It's a chain originally from North Carolina, and the DC location will be the first outside of the Carolinas. Their grand opening is tomorrow, and they're giving out free pizza. Since I won't be able to go tomorrow, I figured I should go today so I can tell you all about it.

It was some of the best pizza by the slice I've had in DC. The sauce was nice and savory, without an excessive amount of pepper. There was a good amount of cheese on the pizza, and the parmesan cheese they have is of a decent quality. The pepperoni was good, not so spicy as to dominate the pizza, but with a little bit of a kick and good crispiness. And the crust was crisp, without being overly crispy, and fairly salty. (Actually, it was salty enough that some people might think it's too salty, but I like salt.) The service was a bit sloppy, but it was pretty obvious that they were still training the new employees, so I think a lot of the hiccups will go away in about a week. I liked the decor -- it was obviously intended to evoke a certain sort of southern restaurant, with a few fuel pumps thrown in. A nice step up from the antiseptic quality of Pizza Pino or the dinge of Washington Deli. I'll definitely be back, and I'll update you when I go.

2 comments:

  1. Have you tried the pizza at Comet Ping Pong yet? Rob's a huge fan of New England style pizza and that's the closest in the area that we've found so far (it's a crisp crust style). What style of pizza is your favorite?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I've tried Comet Ping Pong, and thought it was pretty good. I was mostly thinking of pizza by the slice here; when it comes to sit down pizza joints, like Pizza Paradiso say, there are lots of better options than the by the slice places.

    I'm probably a bit idiosyncratic in terms of what style I like. I like my crust a bitter thicker and chewier than proper New York style, but not actually crispy.

    ReplyDelete